Twenty-First Session (7 page pdf) – “An Unusual Route” – The Araska and Bunyip decide to stop in at Hermea to refit. They get a little bonus.
CAUTION – ADULT CONTENT
First, a tide worm gives them some trouble, but ends up on their dinner table. (It’s from one of the many random d20 naval books I have, I’m not even sure which.) Then – after all the carnage last time, what do pirates want? Sex, and lots of it. They put in at Promise on the island nation of Hermea. Hermea’s a weird place – run by a gold dragon trying to perfect humanity via eugenics and a Star Trek-esque polity of plenty. James Jacobs and other Pathfinder designers like to argue about whether this is really Lawful Good or not. (It is “interesting,” however, which is wayyyyy more important than that, so I don’t really care.) Enter the dock district prostitutes. You could argue that there wouldn’t be prostitutes if all the women were free in a utopian-aspirant society. I figured that general Golarion sexual politics tends to say that no, there’s definitely plenty of “it’s what they choose to do” sex workers. So what’s the next natural conclusion? Well, if they can’t risk conception because of eugenics, then it’s an “anal only” zone. I like this conclusion because you can just imagine how every shipful of pirates (and merchants, and…) SO wants to dock there from the sheer novelty. “Let’s go to Hermea! Did you hear… Hur hur hur!” And, let’s be honest, the place already is reminiscent of Greece, and… If you don’t know where that’s going I’m not going to tell you, but Google away. (As an aside – some Pathfinder writers tend to like to “cheat” and come up with convenient risk-free alchemical concoctions that do everything from guaranteed birth control to problem-free sex changing. I understand blatant wish-fulfillment in RPGs but don’t go in for it – heck, those things aren’t 100% effective and risk free with 21st century science, let alone smooshing some St. John’s Wort into some tea – so I prefer not to do stuff like that which reduces common Renaissance-era risks. Sorry, it’s expensive/powerful magic or pretty poor hedge treatments in my game.)
A Hermean officer reads from a prepared script, “You may dock in Promise. You cannot pass the sandstone walls. The island is governed by the Council of Enlightenment. Trade is only permitted at the docks. No immigration is permitted. No organized religion is permitted. Do not land anywhere else on the island. You are not permitted to get Hermean citizens with child. We have additional laws – they will be explained as they come up. Enjoy your stay. Don’t forget to visit the gift shop.” The command crew isn’t sure if the stories that Hermea is ruled by a gold dragon that eagerly burns pirate ships to the waterline is BS or not but they aren’t inclined to risk it.
Well – most of them, that is. Tommy and Lil, however, have accepted Seyanna the succubus‘ profane gift and become followers of Nocticula. They decide the best course of action is to find one of those Hermean prostitutes (in this case Britt, a spoiled fourth-generation Hermean), convert her to Nocticulaism, and tempt her into illegal normal-style sex. (Tommy’s player, usually absent, returned for this session so we gave him a starring role.) I made them do a lot of scheming and make a lot of rolls of one sort or another to make this succeed, but in the end they summoned their friend Seyanna to consummate the deal.
The crew also lucks out otherwise. Whenever the crew is at liberty (in port, or left to themselves for a while) I do a d20 roll per pirate to see if anything good or bad happened to them – 1 or 20 is dramatic, 2-5 or 15-19 is something worth note at least, 6-14 is just business as usual) and no one got into any really bad trouble. Then, the captain throws me the GM for a loop by declaring they want to go back to the Shrine of the Arm-Ripper on Argavist Island next time. They have enough people with missing limbs to make it worthwhile. To my books!
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